Software : Industry voice: Bring your own app: fantasy or business necessity?

Industry voice: Bring your own app: fantasy or business necessity?
Apple may leapfrog some iOS 8 features to iOS 8.1
Shut up already: Twitter rolling out new 'mute' feature
Dude, where's my car? Google Now will remember where you parked
Windows XP users aren't left behind with latest Internet Explorer patch

Industry voice: Bring your own app: fantasy or business necessity?

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App stores are firmly embedded in our daily lives and as a result consumers are now demanding the same ease of use, accessibility and functionality from their professional environment.

This has inevitably bought about the 'consumerisation of IT' and if employers do not provide users with access to the apps that they want and need to do their job more effectively they will simply get them from elsewhere, regardless of corporate policies and security.

Fuelled by this demand, enterprise app stores are seemingly the solution for agility in the workplace and with Gartner predicting 25% of enterprises will have an app store by 2017 we are edging closer to the 'workspace of the future'.

In addition, IT departments are trapped in the mess of attempting to cope with the logistics of managing employee passwords and logins, inevitably leading to a mass of duplicated, unauthorised and dormant subscriptions to services that enterprises didn't even know they had. It can be assumed that this is costing organisations thousands if not millions in lost revenue.

Enterprise app store

The beauty of an effective enterprise app store is that its hands the controls back to the IT department restoring it to IT-as-a-Service capability, whilst also empowering the employee though independent application management.

The reality is that enterprises need to wake up to the fact that enterprise app stores offer a secure, cost effective and agile tool-set to employee management, ensuring consistent business growth.

Whilst appearing to offer a quick fix, an enterprise app store is by no means a small project and in order to be effective it needs to cut across all departments, if the flexibility and productivity benefits are to be realised. A connection often missed by organisations that are sometimes blinded by the associated cost savings.

Gartner recently stated that few enterprises are truly capable of controlling their entire employee mobile chain and that organisations need to realise that the majority of their staff will not accept in-house app stores on their personal devices.

Compliance and application policy is a quicker route to success and is a tactic that is easily enforceable and manageable.

Reducing risk

An additional benefit, contrary to popular belief, is that an app store may assist enterprises in avoiding software penalties by seamlessly taking care of management approvals and license validation.

In the perfect case, an app store reduces risk by, in simple terms, providing the correct application for the right job.

More importantly it also ensures the organisation complies with license policy with the ultimate benefit being huge cost savings as the enterprise will only be paying for the applications which are active and in use by the employees.

An enterprise app store is an effective tool in coping with an increasingly mobile workforce who now expect more from their business network.

While an enterprise app store is a significant step in achieving effective Bring Your Own App (BYOA) in the workplace, this challenge can only be met if policies are developed for securing and provisioning this content.

Mark Keepax is Vice President for UK and Ireland at ASG Software Solutions. Mark is responsible for ASG's business growth and development in the region as well as establishing and developing client relationships.

Apple may leapfrog some iOS 8 features to iOS 8.1

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Can something be delayed when it hasn't even been released, yet alone announced? Apparently anything is possible for Apple's upcoming mobile operating system, which may now launch without one or more rumored new features.

9to5Mac has been aggressively leaking what Apple might be cooking up for this year's iOS 8 software, but now the website is backpedaling just a bit on what might be included with the initial release.

Apple is expected to introduce iOS 8 at its Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco next month, with a release to the public likely arriving later in the year alongside new hardware.

However, the latest scuttlebutt from inside Apple HQ is that some of the recently rumored new features might actually be delayed until the first major update, which will presumably be iOS 8.1.

Moving target

The report claims that Apple may be allocating additional resources from its iOS engineering team to the next big OS X release, which is expected to be a complete visual overhaul of the venerable Mac operating system.

Among the potential new additions to iOS 8 are Healthbook, TextEdit and Preview apps as well as a dedicated iTunes Radio app, the reintroduction of public transit directions to the built-in Maps app and Voice over LTE support.

Transit routing is cited as one potential feature that could be pushed back to iOS 8.1, instead paving the way for backend enhancements to iCloud and a rumored Shazam partnership, which would allow device owners to identify songs via Apple's Siri voice assistant.

Also said to be complicated matters is rumored new "multi-resolution support," which could pave the way for App Store titles to work across a variety of different screen sizes, including a larger iPhone 6 and a rumored Apple TV refresh with Siri voice control.

Don't forget about our exhaustive review of Apple's iPad Air!

Shut up already: Twitter rolling out new 'mute' feature

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Twitter has seemingly begun rolling out a mute button in its iOS and Android apps.

Not all users have access to the mute feature, but if you just can't wait to really effectively ignore that annoying relative or naggy co-worker then you should keep an eye out in the coming days for it to arrive.

Muting a Twitter user hides their tweets and re-tweets from your timeline, but isn't as harsh as blocking or even just un-following someone since they can't tell you've done it.

And unlike many of Twitter's other recent changes, this is actually a welcome addition.

Better than nothing

Mute features are common to Twitter clients and apps like Tweetdeck (which Twitter bought in 2011) and Tweetbot, the latter of which even lets users set timed mutes that expire after set amounts of time.

This lets users mute people just for the length of TV show episodes or sports games that they don't want spoiled for them, for example. Twitter's feature doesn't go so far, but it's better than nothing.

It's definitely a more welcome addition than Twitter's new Facebook-like layout and its new, more prominent timeline ads.

At least Twitter's picture tagging and Cover acquisition might be steps in the right direction.

We've asked Twitter to confirm that it's rolling out a mute feature and when and where it will arrive. We'll update this article if we hear anything useful back.

What's the point of Twitter if it's just like Facebook?

Dude, where's my car? Google Now will remember where you parked

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Lost your car and can't remember where you parked? Google has rolled out a fresh Google Now for Android update that adds parking reminders so users will never forget where they left their ride.

In a blog post, the search company detailed how automatic parking reminder cards will start appearing for users who assign driving as their main form of transportation in Google Now.

The automatic parking detection marks a location as soon as users leave a vehicle. Additionally, Google Now will plant a marker after leaving a friend's car and whenever users step off a bus.

Previously, the Google-owned Waze has allowed users to mark their parking spaces manually, but this new update adds some automatic integration. This isn't the first time Google has integrated Waze features into Google Now; in March the Mountain View company also added traffic updates from the firm.

A bevy of improvements

Along with automatic parking reminders, the search company has tweaked Google Now to let users access phone settings using their voice. Users can simply command the phone to turn on Wi-Fi or change the volume settings.

Users will still have to touch their screens to switch on Airplane mode, but the addition of voice control lets users jump directly into the settings without the extra steps of draging down the notifications page and selecting the option.

Also with Airplane mode, the new update makes it so all your Google Now cards get wiped on the tarmac. Instead, users will get a notification informing them of the last time their Google Now cards were updated.

In a few smaller tweaks, Google Now's reminder list has been separated into more distinguishable upcoming and past blocks. Google has also made it easier to access your Nicknames by digging into your "Account & Privacy" settings.

How does Google Now compare with Siri and Cortana?

Windows XP users aren't left behind with latest Internet Explorer patch

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Microsoft recently waved goodbye to the most popular version of Windows ever, but a nasty security flaw lurking inside the company's web browser is forcing a quick fix, even for those too stubborn to upgrade to the latest OS.

Microsoft has announced the release of a new security update that addresses a newly uncovered flaw with the Internet Explorer web browser first disclosed by Redmond last weekend.

The exploit made headlines earlier this week because it affected not only newer operating system versions, but also Windows XP, which Microsoft officially put out to pasture April 8.

Microsoft Group Manager of Response Communications Dustin Childs claimed security updates will be automatically installed for "the majority of customers," but a manual download is also available for users who haven't yet enabled Automatic Update.

Just this once?

Released at 10 a.m. PST Thursday, the so-called "out-of-band" update also applies to Windows XP, despite Microsoft having now disowned the nearly 13-year-old OS.

"We have made the decision to issue a security update for Windows XP users. Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft, and we continue to encourage customers to migrate to a modern operating system, such as Windows 7 or 8.1," Childs elaborated.

Childs also encouraged Windows customers to upgrade to the latest version of the popular web browser, currently Internet Explorer 11.

Microsoft will host a live webcast Friday, May 2 at 11 a.m. PST to discuss today's security bulletin, which presumably will include yet another reminder for Windows XP holdouts to let go of the past; registration for that event is now open to all.

Microsoft gets its game on in our expansive Xbox One review!

Yahuui Blog

Friday, May 2, 2014